Double Good Think

I mean, surely a demographically challenged Russia could never bear hundreds of thousands of Russian KIA in a war of attrition.

As far as having bodies, they do and they don't. It isn't 1951. Every PLA grunt is the retirement plan of at least two seniors. If they lose a single division Korean War style, people will be out in the streets.

Skilful means bro

One of the most interesting and rarely mentioned points is that General Zhang was the only senior Chinese military leader with actual combat experience (in the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979). Nobody else at the top of the PLA has actually fought in a war.

Ayden Ross is part of the invasion force and freaks out when bodies start dropping 'BRO WHY ISN'T HE RESPAWNING?!'

An actual possible scenario in this dumbass timeline is an even stupider Bay of Pigs in Alberta where Hegseth and Trump decide to send in armed MAGA volunteers who proceed to livestream themselves being turned into paste by the Canadian military

Lmao Yakub joined ICE

Honestly some of this is just Zoomers not realising how homophobic the '90s and 2000s actually were

mr president harden your heart against the woke airline executives telling you that nuking regional carriers is insane

My own political activism effectively ended because I became known as a "lolcow" - because I was very strong against campism and conservative Leftism, I made the dumb mistake of taking on people who were far more popular and valuable to the movement that I was. You just get the lesson to stop trying

just to be clear: the internet has been invented. there is no such thing as a "secure and safe media buildout". your message goes everywhere or it is dead in the water.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_Gr...

Things like this did happen when Jews were deemed to have overstepped the bounds of 'their place'

Jewish-Islamic relations during the Middle Ages are a whole rabbit hole in themselves; you can generally say *on the whole* Jews were treated better in Islamic than Christian societies, but it was a far cry from modern ideas of 'equality' and bouts of savage persecution did erupt from time to time

Tbh the past year has really shaken my belief that the American business class are ruthless pursuers of profit above all else; they seem to care more about being able to say slurs and sexually harass their staff

I'm sure you've seen me say it by now but UAE-Israel is the nexus of an American-led (or if one rather, endorsed) Metternichian alliance in MENA

Dubai and London are the two biggest boltholes for dodgy Subcontinental businessmen to hide out in

Even the BJP in India is super careful not to let domestic Islamophobia it stokes to affect its relationship with the Gulf. A lot of India's big business tycoons have massive interests on both sides of the Arabian Sea

If the US ever gets accountability and tribunals like a lot of Bluesky wants, you can bet a lot of right wing grifters will flee to Dubai and Doha

Didn't realise how based Johann Cruyff actually was for boycotting this tournament

Ofc FIFA is famous for their deep commitment to human rights and the inherent dignity of every person; it's been clear since the 1978 World Cup when they let Argentina host at a time when their junta was throwing dissidents out of planes over the Atlantic

Tbf a big part of the Saudi-UAE rivalry and tension atm is MBS has been adopting a lot of the strategies the UAE started with back in the 2000s and has started eating their lunch

It's also that some of the more pragmatic among them realise they can't actually do without any migration; what they can't abide is migrants (especially those of colour) claiming equal status and citizenship with them.

I don't think the sheikhs themselves necessarily think along those lines, but you can see a lot of far-right Europeans (especially Brits) seeing a genuine inspiration there, and I don't think it's explicable in terms purely of them shilling

The UAE in many ways is the closest thing to the neoreactionary ideal as a state in the modern world. Essentially interlinked family properties and tiered rights based on status which is heavily (but not entirely) determined by race and ethnicity

Odds of a major constitutional crisis by the end of 2026/early 2027 look almost close to certain if things continue as they are. I simply do not see Trump accepting a Dem majority Congress, it will be a fight between Executive and Legislature for supremacy

The influence of 19th century Romantic nationalism (German in particular) on the whole Zionist project is also pervasive, so much of it was premised on this idea that the 'degeneracy' of the diaspora could be remedied by tilling one's ancestral soil

Canaanism - Wikipedia

This movement was a weird little detour from the Zionist right, people like Uri Avnery who were involved with it later became notable peace activists

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanism

The early Zionist attitude towards Palestinians was pretty much to pretend they weren't there, and when they did acknowledge them they assumed they would be happy to accept the benefits of 'civilisation' and live peacefully under Jewish tutelage. *Very* European imperialism

Singapore is about as benign as authoritarianism gets; and it's *still* not a model to be recommended or championed.